14 WordPress Plugins to make your new website sublime

It’s a war out there. Content alone is not going to be enough to attain supremacy over the competition. You need a powerful website. WordPress Plugins are your ammunition, they beef up your arsenal and gear you for war.

We have made a list of plugins that you simply cannot avoid when start a new website. If you miss out on any of these, you are giving your rivals a serious chance to outdo you.

The HEROES

These are legends in the industry. Even if you miss out on all the other plugins in this list, make sure you don’t miss these guys. The difference they can make to your website is immense.

1. Word Press SEO by YOAST

He is your general in the army, without him Google may never find you. If Google never finds you, neither would your target audience. This plugin is the ultimate SEO plugin which takes complete care of your search engine optimization. This baby has over a million downloads for a reason. He is super effective.

Our rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How he helps:

You can add meta description, title and meta keyword to enhance your SEO.

He automatically notifies search engines once you publish a post.

You can add your own custom RSS feed in the footer.

He has tons of other advanced features too. Check him out here.

2. Jetpack

She literally makes your website fly. Created by Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, Jetpack lives up to her name. You will be missing out on a lot if you do not get this plugin.

Our Rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How she helps:

Your website gets better security and enhanced performance.

You get an array of visitor engagement tools.

Helps you to have spam-free comments.

Gives you insights on traffic growth.

These are just the major advantages. You get much more with this cool plugin. Check her out here.

3. Google Analytics by MonsterInsights

He is your ultimate tracker. Gives you in-depth intel on all your visitors. This is valuable data which you can use to strategize your game plan.

Our Rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How he helps:

Gets you the geographical location of your visitors.

Tells you the bounce rate (percentage of visitors who leave right after they come to your website)

Informs you about your hottest hours – that is the period when your website has maximum activity. You can choose this time to publish new posts to gain maximum reach.

Gives you information about where your visitors came from.

Educates you on how your audience interacts with your content.

Check him out here.

4. Akismet

Known as the spam terminator of WordPress. More than a million websites depend on Akismet to prevent spammers from wreaking havoc.

Our rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How he helps:

Saves you a lot of headache by automatically finding spam comments and filtering them out.

URLs are displayed in the comment body so that misleading links are not perpetuated.

There is a discard option which blocks even the worst of spams, this helps you in saving up disk space thus speeding up your website.

Learn more here.

5. WooCommerce

If your website is an ecommerce website, this is the plugin you need.

Our rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How she helps:

You can get your store online in minutes.

You will receive mails in case a particular product becomes out of stock or low in inventory.

You can easily configure settings to tailor your needs.

Get WooCommerce here.

THE GAME CHANGERS

The game changer turns the tide to your favour amid all the competition. More than 50% of your visitors will be accessing your website via smart phones. You have probably heard about all the fuss in making your website responsive (optimised for smart phones). Many use a WordPress carousel plugin or a WordPress grid plugin to make it mobile friendly. Grids and carousels can be scaled without disrupting the overall structure of your website. This is why they are so popular especially among E-commerce websites.

1. Elementary

Soon to be a hero, presently a game changer – Elementary is the ultimate plugin you need to make your website responsive. He can create grids, sliders, carousels, archivers, galleries, banners and what not. He is like a WordPress grid plugin and WordPress slider plugin combined. The perfect cocktail.

Our rating: 10/10 (Highly Recommended)

How he helps:

More than 15 elements to choose from.

Helps you to filter the type of content you want to be showed. You can filter content by Post type, Fields, Terms or Taxonomies.

Helps you sort posts by date or post ID in ascending and descending order.

The drag and drop feature makes customizations a very easy and fun experience.

You do not want to miss this game changer. Check him out here.

2. Meta Slider

A highly rated WordPress slider plugin. She is a perfect fit if you are interested in sliders alone.

Our rating: 9/10

How she helps:

You can choose from four different sliders.

You get full width sliders

Check her out here.

3. Content Views

A popular WordPress grid plugin. You can make your website function like Pinterest. Unlike Elementary, only grids can be made.

Our rating: 8/10

How he helps:

You can make grids collapsible or scrollable.

You get to select which fields should be shown to readers.

Check him out here.

THE DEFENDERS

The internet is not a safe place. It is filled with hackers who have their own automated programs to take websites down. It is not like they sit and scheme ways to attack your website. These are usually carpet bombing mechanisms where they track websites with security issues and infect them. Without the defenders, you are playing a very risky game.

1. Wordfence Security

This guy is your defensive wall. Probably the best security plugin available.

Our Rating: 10/10

How he helps:

He blocks known attackers and malicious networks.

Gives you the option to block an entire country if required.

Scans for vulnerabilities in your site and notifies you if anything is found.

Fake Google-bots are blocked using a firewall.

Starting a website without this plugin is a serious security threat. You are putting your website on the line. Get more information here.

2. Login Lockdown

Some hackers try brute force tactics in picking your password. Login Lockdown is the hacker’s nightmare because his IP address will get locked after a couple of attempts.

Our rating: 9/10

How he helps:

You can set up a minimum number of login attempts from a single IP address. Make sure that your Login ID is not “admin” and password is not “password”. In such cases, not even Login Lockdown will be able to protect you.

Get Login Lockdown here.

THE ERROR DETECTION SQUAD

These guys are your personal error detecting agents. They will scan your entire website for errors and notify you when they find something fishy. They keep your website professional so that none of your visitors have a bad experience.

1. Broken Link Checker

He is your clean up agent. He scans your website and gives you an accurate idea of the broken links present. Broken links are a turn off for visitors. It makes your website look unprofessional and increases the bounce rate.

Our rating: 9/10

How he helps:

Notifies you by email when broken links are detected.

Makes sure that search engines do not follow broken links.

Additionally, detects missing images and notifies you.

You can edit links directly through the plugin instead of going to each post individually.

Get Broken Link Checker here.

2. Redirection

She is your 404 agent. She detects all sorts of 404 errors and helps you in redirecting them to 301 links of your choice.

Our Rating: 9/10

How she helps:

She is available in many languages including English, Spanish, Hindi, Greek, Russian, Arabic, etc.

Provides redirection statistics. You will get to know interesting information regarding total number of redirections, when it happened last, origin of URL, etc.

Any URL can be redirected, even the ones that are not broken.

Learn more here.

THE FOOT SOLDIERS

An army might be led by heroes and defenders. But without the foot soldiers, there would be no army. They might be simple but each one of them are unique and serve their own purpose.

1. YARPP (Yet Another Related Post Plugin)

A valiant soldier who can reduce the amount of bounce rates. He basically introduces your visitors to similar content in your website. You can even show sponsored content to monetise your website.

Our Rating: 8/10

How he helps:

Helps you target particular users for your advertiser by geo-locator.

You can subtly promote your own service or product.

Provides you the option to customize the powerful algorithm according to your own needs.

Get more information here.

2. Contact Form 7

She helps your visitors to connect with you. It is the most solid contact form plugin in WordPress. Simple to use, yet very powerful.

Our Rating: 9/10

How she helps:

You get Ajax powered submitting.

You are protected from spams thanks to the CAPTCHA.

Easily customizable to tailor to your own needs.

Supports Akismet filtering for extra spam protection.

Find more information here.

You have got intel on all the required ammunition to kick start your legacy. Do not waste more time. Install the plugins right away, especially the hero and the game changer plugins. You have come this far. You do not want to be left behind. Act!